Divorce Takes Health Tolls, Study Says

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/divorce.marriage.health/index.html

According to the above article, "a study was completed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people. They also have 23 percent more mobility limitations, such as trouble climbing stairs or walking a block."

The most commonly recommended action for families that need access to Health Care and apply to Public Health Programs is for the parents to divorce, one of the parents then to move away from the home and refuse to financially contribute to the household thereby allowing the other parent and children to qualify for Medicaid and assistance. I have said for so many years that this option is unbelievably wrong in so many ways. It traumatizes the parents and the children and causes additional health problems from that trauma. It is an option that my family fought against for many years and are still fighting against.

So many people just do not understand the impact of divorce and believe that marriage is nothing more than a piece of paper. An example that I recently experienced at a Health Care Reform Town Hall of that was with a Senators Aide. After my family spoke and shared our story and the event ended, a Senators Aide came up to speak with us. She asked me why we don't just divorce, I explained to her that according to my religion and my personal beliefs divorce is out of the question. I explained that my husband and I are partners, that we love each other more than life, that there are reasons for divorce that we find acceptable but those reasons are not applicable to us. Her response was that marriage was just a piece of paper, that divorce can just be a matter of paperwork and that way my husband or I could qualify for Public Health assistance programs. She just didn't understand that for us, marriage is a sacred vow that we will not break even when I explained it to her.

The existing Public Health Programs are needed and when a person qualifies due to Health condition, age, or finances, then those programs are very good. I am a big supporter of Medicaid as being the best Health Insurance available for children with special health care needs. However, to qualify, the existing programs promote family dis-harmony, family divisiveness, family financial hardship, and increased stress because the caps are far too low. We need other options besides Private Health Insurance and the existing Public Health options. We need to increase the caps on Public Health Programs as well as create a new Insurance Exchange that includes a National Public Health Plan with a Hardship Waiver.

We can improve the health of every single citizen simply by allowing them access to health care and affordable health insurance. We can signifantly improve the lives of every citizen, improve our economy, and improve the future of our society simply by making sure that we pass Health Care Reform that includes: a National Public Health Plan with a Hardship Waiver, regulating the insurance industry, making the practices of denials based on cost and over-pricing policies and purging customers illegal, taking the private insurance out of the health decisions, and expanding the medical professions base.

This study proves what I have been saying for far too many years, the repercussions of our broken Health Care system and the policies in place to allow people to qualify for public assistance have severe consequences. We should be promoting family unity not divorce just to gain access to health care.